Hertford - proscribed reading

[dotsrebel]

Yes, yes, Hiawatha - of course of course, Mine haha forever by the running water and the might Gitche Goome, or something like that.

And the Rape of the Lock. And the Wasteland, T S Elliot. And I certainly remember 'Brazilian Adventure' - can even see in my mind's eye the front of the paperback cover. And the Browning Version? And Good Companions? JB Priestly? Would never otherwise have read either.

Yes, and Hamlet... and memorable visits to see and swoon over Ian Mckellen in Richard II and Hamlet - little did we know at the time how totally hopeless our adoration would be.

And certainly Kafka (q.v.) - the opening of Metamorphasis engrained on my mind ever since...

Kim, well where are you and what are you doing? I live in SW Scotland nowadays looking at autumn which has suddenly come in with a vengeance...

Did Miss Richards also read us the 'Wide Sargasso Sea'?

[Kim2s70-77]

I live in the US (have done since 86) Are you on Facebook?

[englishangel]

and she does triathlons, still a gorgeous fit girl.

[J.R.]

and she does triathlons, still a gorgeous fit girl.

I seem to remember reading about those in The News Of The World !

[michael scuffil]

I seem to remember that there was a set book (Essays of Elia or something like that) that Miss M was supposed to teach us for A level but Mrs Betterton discovered after Christmas in our U6th year that we hadn't even started it so she took over and we did - was it Tennyson - in a hurry.

Essays of Elia was by a famous OB...

I remember casually reading the A Level regulations (as one does) one Sunday afternoon, and looking at the German Lit. section, and just happening to notice that there was a block of about six Goethe poems that Pat Cullen hadn't put on his list. This was about three weeks before the exam. He was very embarrassed when I pointed this out, and he gave us extra lessons in his (and our) spare time.

[gma]

Sorry!

Amanda if you are on FB you can find quite a few of us, (a disturbing number of we 2s too!), in a group called HOGOF (Hertford Old Girls on Facebook!)



Miss Hann, was she not there very long? She had a huge influence on me and encouraged my slightly odd reading habits including, as mentioned somewhere else on here, Giovanni Guareschi and his Don Camillo neither pre- nor pro-scribed but recommended nonethless!

[Angela Woodford]

[quote="MaryB") I don't remember our set books. (I bet MaryB can remember them.) I expect it's because I was usually reading an alternative book below desk level.[/quote]

Did Bran the Bronzesmith actually have a plot. I don't think I ever finished it, despite being such an anxious conformist and an avid reader.

- wait for it - Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming (eh?).[/quote]

I knew you would know Mary. Bran the Bronze Smith did have a plot and a destiny, which he fulfilled paddling around vigorously in his coracle. And paddled. And paddled. The copies of BtBS (wrapped in sturdy brown paper covers) lived in a musty cupboard at the back of 111'. So *stern Miss Champion voice* how come that a copy went home, dotsrebel? J'accuse!

A blast of Brazilian Adventure has come back to me. It was about the search for a lost Colonel Percy Fawcett, who'd disappeared in the depths of - er- Brazil. The writer had been recruited to take part in the search via an ad in the Times Personal Column.

I remember a really splendid description of a madly weird patriotic statue in a Square somewhere in a city in er, Brazil. I thought it was such a funny piece of writing and giggled madly. I looked up and Miss Morrison had caught my eye. She was giggling madly too! BJM knew the sort of thing I liked. Anyway - the result of this was that I began slipping into the Library at all sorts of forbidden hours to look at the Times Personal Column, in case some exciting opportunity might come my way.

It never did!

[englishangel]

Sorry!

Amanda if you are on FB you can find quite a few of us, (a disturbing number of we 2s too!), in a group called HOGOF (Hertford Old Girls on Facebook!)



Miss Hann, was she not there very long? She had a huge influence on me and encouraged my slightly odd reading habits including, as mentioned somewhere else on here, Giovanni Guareschi and his Don Camillo neither pre- nor pro-scribed but recommended nonethless!

I don't remember a Miss Hann, but was Don Camillo the Italian priest at permanent loggerheads with the Communist Mayor?

[midget]

That's the one EA. I was introduced to him by the curate at St Johns Wood parish church. (He was eventually a Bishop) They had an upper room where the congregation could meet after Evensong, drink coffee, and hear a speaker, or the curate reading.

[gma]

I don't remember a Miss Hann, but was Don Camillo the Italian priest at permanent loggerheads with the Communist Mayor?

That's him! I loved them, found them in the library, bright yellow jackets with red printing and simply couldn't leave them alone! Miss Hann was a tiny women, couldn't even have been 5', with fantastically thick, light grey hair cut in a pudding bowl shape, carried an enormous briefcase that seemed nearly as big as her!

She let me read whatever I wanted as long as the term's work was done so I always cleared it asap if I could; I loved the irreverence of Don Camillo, the endless jockeying for superiority, bucking the system, the pettyness; but then the instant united front to outsiders. It was almost like being at home (if you had 5 brothers!!)

[Kim2s70-77]

Just remembered "Tale of Two Cities" and "A Christmas Carol". I guess the former summed up CH Hertford......."It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"!



Amanda - I was terrified of you when I started CH - especially your mission to get all of our elbows off the table in the dining hall. I have very vivid memories of you serving our lunches; clearly bellowing "Elbows"! and pulling our elbows from behind! I always imagined a previously-propped face descending into the Thames Mud and Barges etc!!

[Vonny]

Miss Hann was a tiny women, couldn't even have been 5', with fantastically thick, light grey hair cut in a pudding bowl shape, carried an enormous briefcase that seemed nearly as big as her!

Yes she was very short - so short in fact that it was possibe to sprinke itching powder on her as she walked into the classroom if you were holding the door open for her

[Kim2s70-77]

We used to make our own itching powder from rosehips from the rose beds next to the tennis courts. Cheap, readily available and quite effective!

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Amanda - I was terrified of you when I started CH - especially your mission to get all of our elbows off the table in the dining hall. I have very vivid memories of you serving our lunches; clearly bellowing "Elbows"! and pulling our elbows from behind! I always imagined a previously-propped face descending into the Thames Mud and Barges etc!!

Which reminds me of a Private Eye Cartoon:

Christmas Lunch at Buck House. The Queen Mother's considerable are breasts resting on, and occupying a considerable amount of the, dining table, as she exclaims 'Elbows, Phillip! Elbows!'

[englishangel]

Just remembered "Tale of Two Cities" and "A Christmas Carol". I guess the former summed up CH Hertford......."It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"!



Amanda - I was terrified of you when I started CH - especially your mission to get all of our elbows off the table in the dining hall. I have very vivid memories of you serving our lunches; clearly bellowing "Elbows"! and pulling our elbows from behind! I always imagined a previously-propped face descending into the Thames Mud and Barges etc!!

That is hilarious, as a junior Amanda was THE WORST at putting her elbows on the table. And getting rid of her cabbage, she never liked it and when one Sunday lunch she found a caterpillar in it her blood-curdling scream could be heard all over Hertford and we thought she would have to be sedated.